Meditation’s Silken Movements
It is a golden sun-speckled morning at upmarket Rutland Gate inCentral Chennai. And, George Kuriyan is connecting with a 1,000-year-old tradition.
Under a sprawling raintree that overlooks a garden house, he is immersed in graceful, arc-like movements that mirror Nature in its tranquil glory. Under the watchful gaze of his students, he simulates the flight of a butterfly; he parts the mane o f a wild horse, and in parting, reflects the majesty of an eagle spreading its wings. Every move is slow, rhythmic and totally centered. And then, in the ultimate act of salutation, he acknowledges his `Oneness with Universe’ with a subtle bow and the `Sun-Moon Fist Salute’.
It is several decades now since Tai Chi first captured the imagination of the world with its gentle swirl of philosophy. Tai Chi is a derived form of Tai Chi Chuan ( which in Chinese means `supreme ultimate fist’). An ideal blend of meditation, exercise and martial arts, Tai Chi today has thousands of adherents across the world. Still, meditation, exercise and martial arts all meet at the confluence of Tai Chi.
As a form of meditation, Tai Chi aspires for a tranquil state of mind in which your senses are opened to a heightened awareness of your body, its place in the universe and the all-omnipresent moment. Breathing, you will learn, is integral to the form. And, so is awareness. Soon, it becomes evident that you are dealing with a camouflaged martial art. Every seemingly graceful step is a shrewdly conceived martial art move. In seconds, it translates into a quicksilver and deadly move that can deflect the most aggressive opponent. Not surprising, if you consider this form’s turbulent history….
As an artistic form, Tai Chi has numerous families of expression. The Five Family Style, for instance, draws on the best offered by the various Tai Chi forms. The more modern Small Wave Tai Chi form is an encapsulation of the entire form — designed for the urban rigours of our modern world.
More often than not, testimonies to Tai Chi have come from the most unlikely sources. Carlos J. Valles, the Gujarat-based priest-writer testifies to Tai Chi’s forms in his book, A Life in Seven Words: ``…They have formed the practical basis o f bodily health and mental peace for generations without number. I have found in them inner balance and outer stillness, contact with my senses and joy in my bones, silent wisdom and kinetic welfare, a roguish smile and a secret enjoyment at the thought of playing boyish mischief under my white hair. They are my prayer, my contemplation, my exercise, my discipline….’’
Taking his point further, George takes up the already classic example of a team of corporate professionals performing a Tai Chi sequence in unison. In time, each team member grows to realise that his or her individual moves (read: corporate skills) contributes to the overall movement of the group (or, corporate mission). In any event, Tai Chi’s principles of centredness and balance are seen as key contributions to any corporate team’s stability in a change-driven world.
As these words are written, Tai Chi continues its ascent of acceptance into Corporate India. It takes a golden sun-speckled morning, for a single realisation finds its expression in two thoughts. Tai Chi is a corporate philosophy whose time has come. And, meditation’s silken movements are here to stay.
Meditation’s Silken Movements is a feature that I wrote for The Hindu Business Line in November 2000. I am sharing it here with acknowledgements for the benefit of the Medium community whose readers from all over the world will benefit from it.
